Emerald Spire 31.0 - The Reclaimers
The reclaimers, masses of small, insectoid robots that had formed into the shape of human-like constructs, loomed up in the organic deconstruction room. Marin, with snap reflexes, whipped one of the beads on his necklace of Fireballs out; the bead detonated in the center of the room, engulfing the reclaimers and the mechanical processing arms both. When the blast cleared it seemed that the tentacles were seriously damaged but the reclaimers were unharmed. Host, strapped to Marin's back, commented loudly that the reclaimers were designed to work in the furnace and had an extremely high resistance to heat. Sighing, Marin leaped forwards and severed one of the tentacles, waiting to engage the approaching beetle-like mass. Kormon and Ismail moved along the other side of the room, disabling the heavily-damaged processing arms as they went. Kormon engaged the second mass of reclaimers, cutting into the small robots with his adamantine axe. Marin punched the first amalgate of beetle-like robots with his adamantine gauntlets; the crushed robots dropped to the ground twitching. Unfortunately, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of these constructs and they reared up, forming fist-like appendages to punch with before disincorporating to crawl over the two men; each robot chanted in a small yet deep voice that 'waste must be reclaimed'. Jaquarl and Amara cast spells on the frontline warriors, staying back themselves; they had both invested heavily in fire spells which had been proven ineffective. The reclaimers fighting Kormon surged over him and he could not resist as they clamped onto his arms and legs and dragged him into the vat of corrosive fluid in the center of the room. The liquid burned his skin and ate away at his belongings, dissolving everything made of organic material. Ismail worked his unholy powers to dampen the effects of the acid as Kormon struggled to escape the hold of the robots, focusing more on smashing them all than pulling away. When if finally seemed like he had destroyed a critical number of them, the remaining number suddenly froze, clenching onto Kormon tightly. They said in unison, 'Preparing for reconstitution' before they all exploded, filling the room once again with an electrical blast. Kormon pulled himself up and out of the vat of acid and moved to help Marin take out the second, heavily-damaged amalgate. It was not programmed to flee in self-defense so it moved to swarm Ismail, who stood closest to the acid bath. Dragging him in, the group moved quickly to try and rescue the cleric whose wounds seemed very serious at this point. Concerned for Ismail, Amara dashed out from the cover she had been hiding behind and cast Magic Missile; the blast destroyed enough of the cluster that the remainder did as the first group had and exploded. Ismail used the last of his strength to dampen the explosion around Amara, protecting her as he collapsed. Marin ran over and pulled Ismail out of the acid, working furiously to clean off the fluid and somehow stabilize the undead. His illusion had failed and the blue light that had been ever-present in his eye sockets was gone. Amara was near hysteric with concern and the group rapidly decided to return to the spa; they held hope that, perhaps, the skeleton was merely unconscious and could be coaxed awake once more. After signalling to the spa staff to let them in, the group rushed to lay Ismail out on one of the enchanted recliners. As they waited to see if Ismail would return to consciousness, Host mentioned that they shouldn't dally: the factory would produce more reclaimers to replace the destroyed ones presently. They refused to leave the cleric behind however, and as Amara fretted by Ismail's bedside and as Marin rested himself, Kormon, aided by Jaquarl and Vibol, collected up every damaged and disabled reclaimer left in the room and crushed them completely, bringing back all of the parts to hoard in a pile much to the quiet discomfort of the spa staff. Kormon angrily surmised that, if the parts were in here, they couldn't be dismantled and turned into new robots. About thirty minutes tensely passed before Marin asked Host if, perhaps, there were any healing potions available. He replied that there certainly were: they would have been no use on the last injured guest here, with her broken limb requiring actual medical skill, but they always had some on-hand for guest emergencies. The server brought out a potion on a fancy tray, pouring it out into a glass before handing it over to Marin, who passed it to Amara. They struggled for a moment, wondering how to 'feed' a potion to a skeleton, before Amara just poured the contents of the glass into Ismail's nasal canal. A second passed before the light suddenly flickered back into Ismail's sockets and he sat bolt upright, much to the relief of his companions. Category:Emerald Spire